Are You Building a Glass House in USANA?

What businesses have more stores or franchises than customers?

I can't think of any...except for the network marketing industry.

Stop and think about this for a minute, because this concept could be the difference between building a glass house with USANA and building a long term income.

Here's a very simple question that you will give the answer: Do you have more Preferred Customers or Associates in your organization?

If you answered more Associates, then you may be building a glass house.

Many leaders and training courses around the MLM industry never mention customers as part of building a business. If customers are mentioned, it's usually in an after-the-fact manner to get someone if they first turn down the business opportunity. It's all about "recruiting, recruiting, and recruiting in order to build a big income." Yes, recruiting is an important component to building a USANA business, but so is getting customers!

"But my downline are my customers!" No, they are not. They are your salesforce. What happens when that person stops building or doesn't make money, do they stay on the products? Usually no. If they are taking the products with the hopes of making money, then they are not real customers! A real customer takes the product because they want the benefit of the product.

Now I'm not saying that one cannot build a successful business through just recruiting. But building a business with a strong customer focus is much more duplicatable then a business focused recruiting. I've trained my fair share of Associates and I can tell you that it's much easier to teach someone how to sell a RESET kit then it is to sell the business opportunity. As new Associates sell products and get customers, they gain confidence and start believing in themselves and that they really can build a strong USANA business! This new confidence then comes across to people and helps with recruiting new Associates.

Yet, I talk with other Associates around USANA who only focus on recruiting and they complain to me about having little duplication and that their new Associates are quitting within the first 60 days. One of the main reasons this happens is because people are not having success with the "recruit, recruit, and recruit", mentality. Very few people can do that.

You can keep doing that (which in my mind is the equivalent of punching the wall trying to get into the next room rather then using the door) or you can build with "business common sense" by getting customers.



To Jason Wells and I, having more customers than Associates is just "business common sense," but to many people, it's a paradigm shift. If you want to incorporate "business common sense" into your USANA business and not build a glass house, then do these two things:

• Read "The Complete Networker: Building Networking Marketing with Business Common Sense" to learn about our unique business building style.


• Learn how to get customers with our Customer Endorsement training course.

Note: The Customer Endorsement training is accessible with any paid subscription at Integritas Group.

You've heard the quote, "People who live in a glass house should not throw stones." It's good advice. Here's the problem when it comes to glass houses and your USANA business: Someone will throw a stone (more likely dozens and dozens of stones) at USANA at some point in the future. Most likely they will not be directed at your personally, but USANA as a whole.

In my 10 year career with USANA, I've been through two experience where people didn't just throw stones, but rather 500 pound boulders at USANA. USANA survived, but I saw many leaders' glass houses shatter into thousands of pieces, along with their income!. Quite a few of those people had to go back into the work force or move onto something else. Fortunately, I built a solid USANA business. My business got some dings and dents, but that was about it.

Are you building a glass house with USANA?

Chris Lopez
Integritas Group Co-Founder
Emerald Director